| Overall Grade: |
A |
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| Story: |
A+ |
|
|
| Acting: |
B |
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|
| Direction: |
A- |
|
|
| Visuals: |
A+ |
|
|
A marvellous timeless tale!
by juanitaj (movies profile)
Aug 19, 2006
1
of
1 people found this review helpful
This ranks as one of my most favorite movies of all time. Wonderfully written, great plot, other-worldly scenery makes this a great movie. I never understood why it wasn't more popular and was disppointed that the DVD didn't contain any extras.
A good cast including veteran British actor Sir Ralph Richardson and a young Ian McDiarmid (Emperor Palpatine from Star Wars), also Peter MacNicol in his career debut. Also debuting was Caitlin Clarke (sister of Victoria Clarke-one time spokesperson for the Pentagon) whom I had a enormous crush on!
The effects were ahead of their time and may look a bit dated now, but that won't take away from the well crafted plot and dialog and scenery. It all comes together well. Hal Barwood and Matthew Robbins did a good job creating and writing this story, not to mention Robbins directing. These two wrote some other notables such as The Sugarland Express, Corvette Summer, and Close Encounters.
What makes this movie one of my all time favorites is that I believe the plot is tight, logical and not full of holes. The story is interesting and involved. It is not just an action movie, but has deeper plot lines such as the young apprentice who tries to take over for the master whom we think gets killed only to discover he is not ready. I also liked the sub plots of the sacraficial ceremony to the dragon and the rise of religion and Valerian's undercover secret and the aspect of dragon's and magician's existance intertwining and ceasing together.
All the Latin dialog is cool sounding too! Especially the dragon's name - Vermithrax Pejorative.
Here's hoping that one day an extended special edition with all the extras will come out. But if they didn't release one during the heyday of the fantasy, medieval movie (think: Lord of the Rings), then I don't know when they will do it. |
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